What’s this, you ask?  Why is Budget Guitarist reviewing a PA speaker?

Here’s the thing: a lot of BG readers are Budget Musicians – you don’t have thousands and thousands of bucks to spend on gear, you agonize over whether to buy the cheap stuff or the next step up, you are very careful with any purchase over $$39.  And many of you play in Budget Bands.  That’d be a great website.  I’m too busy.  Gotta say no to SOME things.

So you put together a band and you need a small PA to put vocals through.  You’ve done your research and you know that the entire world recommends going with a couple of powered two way speakers with horns and 12 inch woofers.  I’ve been lusting over the EV ZLX12p, which you can get for about $350 on sale, as of 11/19.  That’s great… if you have $700 for a pair.  Throw in a hundred dollar mixing board and some good long cables and you’re almost to $900.  That’s not “budget.”

I did another post about the PA Speaker Triangle: sounds good, lightweight, inexpensive… pick 2.  Some would argue that the Behringer Eurolive B212 speaker at around $150 each tick all three boxes, and honestly they’re pretty good for the money.  But they won’t stand up to something “low end pro” like the JRX series.

Used, you can get a JBL JRX 212 for anywhere from $200 to $300 for a pair.  They sound very good and they can handle a LOT of volume.  Find a better sounding pair of speakers that sound good cranked for $200.  Good luck.  So why doesn’t everyone use them?

The Downsides

  • They’re heavy as hell (over 40 pounds each)
  • They require a lot of power to drive them (JBL says at least 250 watts)
  • They are covered in ugly ass carpet (what DECADE is this, JBL?)

I got a pair with the carpet peeling off for $200.  I’m removing the carpet and recovering them with Tolex, which including shipping will cost me around $50 (but I’ll have a lot left over for other projects.)  Caution: If you plan on doing that, um… it’s a royal pain in the ass.  You kind of need to enjoy doing stuff like that.  Otherwise you’ll be hating life.  I kind of enjoy it.

Read the live sound forums on the web and you’ll be told that these speakers are awful, terrible, sound really bad, they’re junk, etc.  I used to believe that crap until I heard them.  It’s not true.  They sound pretty good.  They’re certainly in a similar ballpark to the ZLX speakers I will likely one day replace them with.  They sound better than the Mackie Thumps.  If you want a significantly better sounding pair of speakers, which I paid $200 for, you’d need to spend a grand.

What about power?  Ah.  You can buy a used, rack mountable power amp that is around 200 to 250 watts per channel for around $120 these days, if you shop around.  And it’ll be heavy as hell, but it’ll sound good.

So if you want to build a budget PA system, I’d consider the JRX series, bought used.  People don’t want heavy speakers, and they don’t want heavy power amps, and they don’t want heavy analog mixing boards.  Which means ALL that stuff is available used for really good prices.  A great alternative to the JRX series is the Yamaha Club series, which I do think sounds a little better, and which you can find used for only a little more money.

So forget the new Behringer stuff.  Get yourself an old kick ass PA system and your band will sound better for it.  Once you get more money, the JRX speakers make great stage monitors.